How to get link-URL in Android WebView with HitTes

Question

I try to catch webview longclicks to show a context menu. (see code below) When longclicking an image, I always get the image-URL as extra (for a not linked image with IMAGE_TYPE and for a linked image with SRC_IMAGE_ANCHOR_TYPE). But how can I get the Link-URL (and not the image-URL) for an image with a hyperlink?

Best, Sebastian

        mywebview.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener() {
            public boolean onLongClick(View v) {

                final WebView webview = (WebView) v;
                final WebView.HitTestResult result = webview.getHitTestResult();

                if (result.getType() == SRC_ANCHOR_TYPE) {
                    return true;
                }

                if (result.getType() == SRC_IMAGE_ANCHOR_TYPE) {
                    return true;
                }

                if (result.getType() == IMAGE_TYPE) {
                    return true;
                }

                return false;
            }
        });

Answer 1

None of solutions above worked for me on Android 4.2.2. So I looked into source code of default android web browser. I extracted solution to this exact problem - get link-URL from image link.

Source: https://github.com/android/platform_packages_apps_browser/blob/master/src/com/android/browser/Controller.java

Extracted solution:

LongClick listener:

...
mWebview.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener() {

    @Override
    public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
        HitTestResult result = mWebview.getHitTestResult();
        if (result.getType() == HitTestResult.SRC_IMAGE_ANCHOR_TYPE) {
            Message msg = mHandler.obtainMessage();
            mWebview.requestFocusNodeHref(msg);
        }
    }
});
...

Handler to get the URL:

private Handler mHandler = new Handler() {

    @Override
        public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
            // Get link-URL.
            String url = (String) msg.getData().get("url");

            // Do something with it.
            if (url != null) ...
        }
    };

Answer 2

Ziteng Chen solution works up to Android 4.0 (API Level 15) but for some reason the KeyEvent down & up doesn't work in API LEVEL 16+ (Android 4.1+ JELLY_BEAN). It doesn't fire the WebView's loadUrl. So I had to replace the dispatchKeyEvent with dispatchTouchEvent. Here's the code:

...
MotionEvent touchDown = MotionEvent.obtain(SystemClock.uptimeMillis(), SystemClock.uptimeMillis(), MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN, touchX, touchY, 0);
webView.dispatchTouchEvent(touchDown);
touchDown.recycle();

MotionEvent touchUp = MotionEvent.obtain(SystemClock.uptimeMillis(), SystemClock.uptimeMillis(), MotionEvent.ACTION_UP, touchX, touchY, 0);
webView.dispatchTouchEvent(touchUp);
touchUp.recycle();

String url = mUrl;
...

You'd probably have to wait (use an AsyncTask) to get the mUrl in slower devices where it's null immediately after firing the dispatchTouchEvents

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Instead of calling this function myWebView.requestFocusNodeHref(msg);, try calling this function myWebView.requestImageRef(msg);

Answer 4

I checked the source code of the WebView and it seems that the image uri is the only extra data you can get for SRC_IMAGE_ANCHOR_TYPE. But don't be mad here I have a quick and dirty workaround for you:

    webview.setOnLongClickListener(new OnLongClickListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
            final WebView webview = (WebView) v;
            final HitTestResult result = webview.getHitTestResult();
            if(result.getType()==HitTestResult.SRC_IMAGE_ANCHOR_TYPE) {
                webview.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient(){
                    @Override
                    public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
                        // 2. and here we get the url (remember to remove the WebView client and return true so that the hyperlink will not be really triggered)
                        mUrl = url; // mUrl is a member variant of the activity
                        view.setWebViewClient(null);
                        return true;
                    }
                });
                // 1. the picture must be focused, so we simulate a DPAD enter event to trigger the hyperlink
                KeyEvent event1 = new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER);
                webview.dispatchKeyEvent(event1);
                KeyEvent event2 = new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_UP, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER);
                webview.dispatchKeyEvent(event2);
                // 3. now you can do something with the anchor url (and then clear the mUrl for future usage)
                String url = mUrl;
                if (url!=null) {
                    Toast.makeText(webview.getContext(), url, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }

                mUrl = null;
            }
            return false;
        }
    });

I tried the code on a low-end Android 2.1 device and a high-end Android 4.0 device, both work like a charm.

Regards

Ziteng Chen

Answer 5

I know this is an old issue, but I recently came across this issue. Based on Perry_ml answer, I used the following Kotlin code to resolve it:

webView.setOnLongClickListener {
    val result = webView.hitTestResult
    if (result.type == WebView.HitTestResult.SRC_IMAGE_ANCHOR_TYPE) {
        val handler = Handler()
        val message = handler.obtainMessage()

        webView.requestFocusNodeHref(message)
        val url = message.data.getString("url")

        // Do something with url, return true as touch has been handled
        true
    } else {
        false
    }
}

I posted some information about it here.